Home Anorexia & Bulimia The Doctors on the Road to Recovery

The Doctors on the Road to Recovery

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Two doctors gave me tough love at crucial times in my recovery, for which I am now grateful, though I wasn’t at the time.

Shortly after I joined OA in 1990, my new friends suggested I see my general practitioner about my recurring stomach upsets. This doctor told me bluntly that the upsets were due to my anorexia, specifically from eating extremely small meals with long gaps in between. My stomach was letting the food sit undigested until it began to ferment, and the resulting gas and toxins brought on upsets. Eat little and often, the doctor told me, and come back in three weeks’ time.

My first reaction was an internal wail, “But you don’t understand!” I realized, though, that I would get short shrift from this unsympathetic doctor if I returned having made no changes after the three weeks—and my brief experience in OA had shown me that I could change.

I couldn’t bring myself to eat more in total, but I redistributed my three meals into five. At the return visit, I was able to report that I’d had only one more stomach upset, on a day when I’d missed one of the meals. Much has happened since then, but I still follow a 5-0-1 food plan. I eat three meals and two snacks a day, and I am grateful to this doctor.

It was partly the influence of another unsympathetic doctor that got me to increase the quantities of food I ate to about twice what they’d been. In 2010, I was referred to a rheumatologist for a leg problem that was preventing me from cycling. Since I didn’t own a car, I found myself facing the practical problem of getting to work, as well as the collapse of my regime of overexercising. This doctor had my measure as an anorexic and quickly found that I was suffering from a chronic dietary deficiency, one I’d heard mentioned in the appeals from charities for starving children. She was blunt: I wouldn’t recover the use of my leg unless I sorted out my anorexia.

No one except OA people can appreciate the anguish I felt every time I saw a spandex-clad cyclist bombing along the road. My prayers to HP were full of resentment, but I resolved to not heed the restrictive voice inside that said to reduce my food intake to make up for the loss of exercise. I stuck to my 5-0-1 plan, added dietary supplements, and got an electric bike. My weight still didn’t go up.

Finally, another OA member challenged my claim to abstinence since I was not “working towards a healthy body weight” (OA Statement on Abstinence and Recovery). I took this to heart and increased my portion sizes. My weight has gone up, and my leg has recovered, so now I can help the electric bicycle up hills by pedaling. I’m not where I want to be yet, but I needed those two unsympathetic doctors to move me from stuck places on my road to recovery.

— Sheila P., Tadley, United Kingdom

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